Compare Resettling the Range by John Thistle, Paperback | Indigo Chapters

The ranchers who resettled BC’s interior in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries depended on grassland for their cattle, but in this they faced some unlikely competition – from grasshoppers and wild and feral horses. With the help of the government, settlers resolved to rid the range of both. Resettling the Range explores the ecology and history of the grassland and the people who lived there by looking closely at these eradication efforts. In the claims of “range improvement" and “rational land use," author John Thistle uncovers more complicated stories of marginalization: the destruction of wild horses worked to dispossess aboriginal people and discredit their claims to land and resources, while the campaign to exterminate grasshoppers exposed long-standing class conflicts and competing versions of resettlement among immigrant ranchers. When settlers and governments separated environmental issues from their social and ecological contexts, they not only made their problems worse in many cases, but also created new ones that no one anticipated. This unconventional history examines the implications for humans and nature alike, in the process revealing a fascinating – and troubling – chapter of BC history. | Resettling the Range by John Thistle, Paperback | Indigo Chapters